Correlation between fruit and vegetable intake and cognitive function in the elderly

Objective To explore the relationship between cognitive function and dietary consumptions of fruits and vegetables among the elderly.Methods A total of 457 volunteers aged 55 to 75 years from 5 communities covered by Nanyuan Community Health Service Center in Beijing were selected with random sampling.Questionnaires on their general status and dietary consumption were completed and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)was used to measure their cognitive function.The association between general status and cognitive function were analyzed by using logistic regression.Covariance analysis was used to estimate the difference in cognitive function among the elderly with different degrees of fruit and vegetable consumption.Results The results of multivariate logistic regression showed that reading books and newspaper (odds ratioOR=0.608) was a protective factor,while age (OR=1.072)was a risk factor of cognitive function.Fruit intake frequency was significantly associated with the MoCA score and the elderly consuming 7-8 times per week earned the highest score (27.021).There was a significant association between the amount of vegetable consumption and the orientation scores and the elderly consuming 350-500 g per day earned the highest score (5.995);the elderly taking 8-10 sorts of vegetables per week got better results in MoCA score (27.077) and memory and delayed recall score (3.677).In addition,abstraction score was high in the elderly consuming 2-4 sorts of vegetable per week.While no correlation between daily fruit consumption and MoCA score and seven cognitive domain scores was detected (P>0.05).Similarly,the variety of fruit intake had no effect on MoCA score and seven cognitive domain scores in the elderly (P>0.05).Conclusion Appropriate increase in the amount,frequency,and kinds of dietary fruit and vegetable consumption is benefit to the improvement of cognitive function among the elderly.